Sandra Dyck, director of the Carleton University Art Gallery, and Laura Margita, director/curator of Gallery 101, are honoured to announce that Walking With Our Sisters will be presented at Carleton University Art Gallery in Ottawa from Sept. 25 until Oct. 16, 2015.
Over the last thirty years, more than 1,180 Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people have been reported missing or murdered in Canada. Many have vanished without a trace, and their cases have often been inadequately investigated, neglected or ignored.
Walking With Our Sisters is a commemorative installation that honours and respects the lives of these women, girls and Two-Spirit people. It presents more than 1,800 pairs of moccasin vamps, including children’s vamps dedicated to the memory of children who did not return from residential school, arranged on the floor in a winding path formation. Visitors remove their shoes to walk alongside the vamps, on a pathway of cloth, in symbolic acts of solidarity and respect.
The vamps (or “uppers,” as they are also called) are intentionally not sewn into moccasins in order to represent the unfinished lives of the women and children, whose lives were so tragically cut short. They were created by caring and concerned individuals from across North America, who responded in overwhelming numbers to a public call issued by the Métis artist and activist Christi Belcourt, who initiated the project.
Walking With Our Sisters is a collective, collaborative, community-based project that creates a ceremonial public space so that people can come together to honour, to mourn, to remember, and to raise awareness.
The presentation in Ottawa of Walking With Our Sisters is supported by the WWOS Ottawa Committee and many volunteers.
Carleton University Art Gallery is funded by Carleton University, the Ontario Arts Council (an agency of the Government of Ontario), and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Gallery 101 acknowledges a project grant from the Community Foundation of Ottawa for the presentation of Walking With Our Sisters in Ottawa. Gallery 101 is funded by the City of Ottawa, the Ontario Arts Council (an agency of the Government of Ontario), and the Canada Council for the Arts.
For more information:
Gabby Richichi-Fried
Media Relations, Walking With Our Sisters
(613) 408-6428
gabs13.fried@gmail.com
Laura Margita
Director/Curator, Gallery 101
(613) 230-2799
director@g101.ca
Sandra Dyck
Director, Carleton University Art Gallery
(613) 520-2600, ext. 1357
sandra.dyck@carleton.ca
Walking With Our Sisters (WWOS) Ottawa
Twitter: @WWOSOttawa
Email: wwosottawa@gmail.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/wwosottawa
Carleton University Art Gallery
St. Patrick’s Building, Carleton University
1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, ON – K1S 5B6
(613) 520-2120
cuag.carleton.ca
Friday, July 31, 2015 in Media Advisories
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